Eliza in Reaperland
by FuryOfTheBlackbird
Summary: A modern day Black Butler fan gets the shock of her life when she somehow finds herself in the realm of the reapers. She quickly realizes though that this world was not exactly as she'd always dreamed. A new evil is on the rise and nobody is safe anymore, demons, humans and reapers alike. But nobody knows how to stop it.
1. Chapter 1: Falling

**Chapter 1  
**Falling

I was falling. Everything was darkness. I could see nothing to help me gauge exactly how fast I was falling. I just knew I was falling. I didn't know how it was even possible for one to simply fall through solid ground. But here I was, waiting for the ground to rush up and smash my head in. I'd been falling so long, I was past the initial fear completely, and was almost at the point of boredom. That was when it hit me. No, literally, something hit me, and it was not the ground.

"Excuse me…Miss?" The voice was muffled and almost… familiar in a way. I could have sworn I heard it somewhere before.

"She's not moving. Is she on the to-die list?" Wait… to-die list? Am I in… nah, that would just be silly, not to mention impossible.

"No, she is not." Someone else said. Yet another familiar voice. This was only getting weirder and weirder.

"Are you sure William dear? She looks very… dead. And my what on earth is she wearing?" Ok so there's a guy called William, and a guy doing a _very _good impression of a girl. This was too much, I had to be dreaming.

"Ok, but dead or not can you _please _get her off me?" Then I realized the muffled voice, seemed to be coming from under me. The I realized whatever I was on was _moving_, and what I was on top of was-

"Ah! A person!" I leaped from the ground as fast as my disoriented body would allow me. "Oh my god, I'm so sorry Ronald are you Ok?" The words came out automatically, before I realized that even though I had spent more than a year obsessing over him and the other reapers of Black Butler, none of them had the foggiest clue that I existed until just now, and _hello,_ I friggin fell from the sky!

"You know who I am?" Ronald brushed the dust from his black suit and gave me a very strange look.

"I'm sorry." I squeaked. "I must have mistaken you for someone else."

"Well then," He laughed, "other than the whole part where you crushed me, It was nice meeting you, I'm Ronald Knox." He smiled a cute teenager smile and extended a hand in greeting. I shook it, and gave him a pleasant smile in return, but I couldn't help but notice the strange lack of heat in his hand.

"I'm Elizabeth Bates, but please call me Eliza."

"Knox, when you are done chatting with this young lady we must return to the office." William glanced at his pocket watch.

"Sorry Boss." Ronald said. "I've got to go; maybe I'll see you around sometime."

"She's coming with us." William said.

"Come again?" I gulped.

"Boss we don't-" But Ronald's protests were immediately squashed, by Williams firm voice.

"Quiet." He grabbed my arm in a neither rough nor gentle manner, and pulled me along as we walked through the crowded streets of London. It was a strange feeling to glide through the bustling crowd with ease, like shadows, like we weren't even there...

"Where are we going?" He didn't answer.

"Close your eyes."

"Why?"

"Just do it." I squeezed them shut just as he told me. There was a whoosh and my my hair and clothes fluttered in a brief wind, like the gentle breeze one feels as the walk from a cool air-conditioned store into the blazing heat of summer. All this, just seemed like a dream come true, to me, and it hadn't quite struck me yet, that all this was, well, _real. _"You can open them now." William said, and I obeyed. We were standing on the stone pavilion by the lake. Glittering skyscrapers dominated the cloudless skyline, while on the cliffs stood the great library, a monolithic structure I was unable to compare to anything I'd ever seen. Every human soul since the beginnings of civilization, was in the building before me. A couple ravens in a birch tree croaked at one another, ominously and the situation at hand was brought back to my attention. "The rest of you should be getting back to your duties." He ordered.

"Yes, boss."

"Anything for you William darling!" I saw his eyes follow them intently until he was sure they were gone. There was a sudden change in the strength of his grip, so that I was now starting to lose circulation in my arm. His pace was unnaturally fast for a walk, and I could barely keep up without entangling my limbs.

"Let go!" I screamed, tugging and pulling at my arm, but from his result I could have been nothing more than a very persistent fruit fly, so I followed him tripping and cursing under my breath.

His office door slammed shut behind us. I didn't need to check to know it was locked. I gulped, there would be no getting out of out of this mess.

"I need to know, why you are here." He voice was firm and commanding just as I had imagined, but it was something else to be the subject.

"Because you brought me here?"

"Smart talk won't get us anywhere." His hand moved dangerously to the pruning pole that could end my life in one motion. I gulped again. "Now, will you answer my question?" It was more an order than a question.

"If I knew I would tell you," What was left of the courage in my voice diminished on the spot, "All I know is there was this bit of ground that was looking pretty solid and I sort of uh… fell through it." He stared at me for a while, his blank face showing no sign as to whether or not he thought I was crazy. His yellow green eyes piercing right through me. There was a moment of tense silence and then he spoke again.

"Intriguing," He muttered as if to himself. "We must take every measure to keep you from being noticed by the wrong people." The change in his tone was sudden. It was hard exactly, to explain how an emotionless voice could change tones and still remain emotionless, but somehow William had managed it.

"What about the other reapers?" I asked. "Surely they would know something's not right." He made a quiet "Hm." sound.

"Don't pretend I haven't noticed your propensity for knowing more than I would like." He replied, changing the topic, which I thought was rather sly of him. "Let me set the record straight. I don't know who you are or where you came from. I do not trust you with our secrets, although it seems you already know many of them." I sat there in the chair, wanting to hit myself for being so stupid. Of course he wouldn't trust me right away.

"You're right." Was all I could say.

"Glad you've taken that in mind." He said flatly, not even sounding the least bit glad. "Take these." He handed me a typical female reaper uniform, which to my disgust included a skirt and not pants, and a night dress. "Now then, I expect you've had a long day." I nodded, with a bit more vigor than was appropriate for the situation, but William ignored it. "I'll show you where you sleep."

He walked wordlessly as I padded along behind him, once again struggling to keep up. When the officer's housing block came into view, it struck me how brilliant his plan was. No isolation for me, he was going to take me where there were many experienced reapers there to watch over me. He knocked on an apartment door, and a glasses-less blond reaper still in his pajamas answered.

"Hello, boss." Ronald poked his head out from the door and squinted at us. "Oh, and you're that Eliza girl from before aren't you?" _Well hello to you too! _I thought bitterly to myself.

"I'm here on business Ronald. I need you to keep an eye on this human girl." I hated the tone of his voice when he spoke about me, like I wasn't worth his time. I wanted to slap his arrogant face into the next world, but instead I stood there smiling meekly.

"Sure thing, boss."

"Good." William said. "Make her feel… at home." And he walked away without another word to me, leaving Ronald and I standing awkwardly at the doorway.

"Don't worry about him; he always takes thing way too serious." He said yawning. "I'm sure you're fine." His room was decorated much like a typical teenager's room would. There were posters of people I didn't recognize tacked up on the otherwise boring white walls. The lampshade was crooked and there were a couple of socks and ties sticking out of their drawers. On the top bunk was a pile of scrunched up sheets where he must have been sleeping when we arrived. "You can take the bottom bunk. I haven't had a roommate for a very long time." He waved a finger in the general direction of the bed, and yawned again. "Sorry, I've got to be in bed. Early start tomorrow."

I lay in on the bunk under a wrap of warm comforters, as cozy and comfortable as I could possibly be. Somehow though, sleep managed to elude me. There was a question running over and over in my mind, but part of the problem was I wasn't exactly sure if I wanted it answered

"Ronald." I called into the darkened room. He grunted, so I assumed he was still awake. "You're a reaper right?" Another grunt. "So you know how I die then." This time no grunt came. It was so long until I got a response, I thought he must have really been asleep the whole time.

"Ask any reaper, and normally they wouldn't give you answer, but in your case…" He sighed. "It's quite interesting really, because you don't die, not tomorrow not in a hundred or even a thousand years. I could go on, our list is very extensive.

"You're joking." I said quietly, more to myself than anyone.

"No jokes." His answer only confirmed one thing. If I wasn't on the reaper's death list, it could only mean two things. One, the least likely, being me not having a soul in to begin with. Two, the most likely but difficult to believe, being that I was not truly of their world. Which meant I had traveled not only through time, but to a completely different universe than my own.


	2. Chapter 2: The Blank Record

****Oh, hi there! Niki here. Please excuse my late post, for I was an idiot and lost my notebook over the weekend, but with no further ado here it is, Chapter 2 in all its fanfiction glory. Enjoy, it's a long one!

* * *

**Chapter 2**

The Blank Record

When I woke up, Ronald was already gone, which came as no surprise to me. There was a note sitting on the dresser beside the crooked lamp, which read:

_Stay where you are! __William will be there shortly to get you. Be ready when he comes. It sounds urgent, but then again, William always sounds urgent._

_-Ronald. K_

I slipped on the suit that William had given me the night before, which fit unnaturally well. I stuffed my hoodie and jeans in the drawer marked out for me. I started to feel I might be here for awhile longer than expected. As I shut the door a glint of silver caught me eyes. I picked it up, unraveling the glimmering chain and watched the delicate silver heart dangle back and forth. He seemed to have missed it as he emptied out the drawer for me. I wondered briefly why such an object was hidden away in the depths of Ronald's dresser, but my thoughts were interrupted by a knock at the door. Hastily, I tucked the necklace into my coat pocket, and rushed to join William in the hallway. The necklace was temporarily driven from my mind.

The reaper offices were a sprawling complex of skyscrapers, which really did scrape the sky, unlike the 'skyscrapers' in my home town which were really just five story buildings. Inside, they were glimmering examples of cleanliness. The floor shone so brightly I could just about make out my own wavy toffee coloured hair, and bespectacled pale face. The lobby was enormous. Hundreds of reapers could have come and gone easily without forming a crowd, but where were they? I'd only passed a total of twenty reapers since we got here, all of them had giving me odd looks. One confused reaper I swear had done a double take.

"…William?" I whispered.

"Yes."

"Can they tell I'm… human." William scoffed.

"Do you take us as fools?" He retorted. "Of course, we reapers can identify humans apart from our own easily." I frowned.

"Then why the hell, am I disguised?"

"Did it ever occur to you that we are not trying to hide you from reapers?" His finger automatically went to his glasses. I was not going to lie; he was really starting to piss me off with his attitude towards humans. Favourite reaper or not, he was simply being a jackass.

My stomach growled loudly, and William gave me a look of disgust.

"Did it ever occur to _you_ that _I'm _a human, there for unlike you I need to eat or I _starve?_" William sighed.

"The cafeteria is downstairs. _Be. Quick._" It amused me that I could cause such frustration by simply putting a fifteen minute dent in his schedule. Satisfying my hunger was only an added bonus.

We made our way up several flights of stairs towards the conference room, which was a large rectangular room with a large table in the middle which took up most of the room. On the table was a sprawling map of London with hundreds of little red pins stuck in it. Around it stood a small array of reapers, most of which I recognized from the day before.

"Slingby, Humphries," The tall blond reaper and the shorter brown haired reaper turned their attention at William.

"Boss." Eric responded.

"You'll be stationed in East London today."

"We've got it covered." Alan said.

"Knox, Sutcliff," This time William faced the blonde teen and tall red headed, erm… lady.

"Can't I go with you William darling?" Grell edged suggestively towards William.

"No." William responded with cold indifference towards this request.

"We make such a good couple though. Why not just this once?" Grell pouted.

"No." Grell did not retreat though. On the contrary, Grell flung himself at William.

"You're so cold Will, but I can see in your heart you-" William jabbed Grell with the blunt end of his death scythe, not really bothered by how hard. With a pitiful squawk of pain, Grell once again retreated to Ronald's side. I fought down a fit of giggles that threatened to come out when I saw William's sour expression.

"The two of you will take Western London today."

"Ok, boss." Ronald gave Grell a couple hesitant pats on the back.

"Eliza, you're coming with me, we're stationed in Central London." This time I stifled a groan. The last thing I wanted to do was spend the day with a party-pooping jackass. But then again, it didn't sound like I had a choice.

* * *

I'd watched many a horror movie in my life, and _believe me _they were probably some of the goriest ever made, but nothing could prepare me for today. The number of murders, beatings stabbings and carriage impacts we visited was staggering. The only bright side of it all was the fact that reapers were very prompt, so there was very little smell other than the coppery stench of thick blood. I wondered how anyone could stand seeing such depressing scenes, every day, and the amount of days reapers could live as well.

"Are all of these going to be so…" My sentence trailed off as I searched for a suitable word to describe the horrors I'd seen. "Grotesque?" He blatantly ignored my question.

"Cause of death Unknown." His voice echoed softly in the alley way along with the steady dripping of water from rusty pipes. "How interesting."

"What's so interesting?" My own voice echoed eerily along with his as we approached the body of a clearly dead person. Suddenly I knew what was so interesting. There was no blood, not a single drop, but more importantly:

"There are no memories, the cinematic record is blank, but the soul is still intact." He muttered. "This is not the work of a demon."

"I would step away from that body if I were you." It was a child's voice, only low and arrogant. I turned my back from the body already knowing who I would see. The child was small, standing beside his tall and stoic butler in black. A no doubt finely made top hat perched on his head, a navy blue cloak hanging over his much too small body. Worst of all though was the black eye patch that covered his left eye, hiding the symbol of a demon's contract. Ciel Phantomhive, the Queen's Watchdog. It didn't take a genius to know this was going to get really ugly really fast. But, here I was, an unarmed human girl whose prospect of staying alive had just gone down dramatically.

"I would think not." There was a hint of bite in William's voice that was unlike anything I'd heard from him before. "You are intruding upon an official investigation being conducted by the Reaper Dispatch Society. I demand you cease and desist, or I will be required to use force."

"Well then, we've got a slight problem don't we?" Ciel responded. "I've been given orders by the Queen herself, to investigate a series of mysterious disappearances. It would seem you are the one intruding upon _our_ investigation."

"You underestimate us, Phantomhive."

"Now do I?" Ciel cocked his head and gave us a dangerous smile. He stretched a finger towards his eye patch, and with a jerk he ripped it off to reveal his contracted eye. "This is an order Sebastian, kill them." Wait… kill?

"Yes, my lord." The butler's gloves fluttered to the ground, revealing the glowing pentagram etched into his hand. His eyes flashed scarlet for a terrifying moment, and the butler attacked. I dove to the side just in time to dodge the steak knife aimed at my head, missing me by only a hair.

"_Shit._" I breathed, somehow still alive. I glanced over my shoulder.

William was standing not three meters away from Sebastian, gripping his death scythe ready to strike. A look of pure hatred chiseled into his features. Sebastian though, was alarmingly calm. His tail coat lay discarded on the ground.

His face broke into a peculiar smile, and he advanced several steps towards William.

"My, my, how little the tables have turned, and after so many years." Sebastian's voice was low and terrifyingly pleasant. "Nothing has changed has it… young master." A brief moment of terror flicker across William's face, but it was a moment too long. Several knives flew from Sebastian's hand, catching William's death scythe by the handle, ripping it from William's hand and tossing it out of reach. The other, pierced him in the shoulder. A splotch of red quickly formed around the wound. William gripped the knife by the handle, pulling it out and tossing it aside, his face a horrible grimace of pain. Sebastian's smile was more venomous than ever. He started towards the pruning pole lying idle on the ground. I knew what he was going to do. I needed to stop him, and fast. I rolled myself into his path, snagging the death scythe from within his reach.

"Bring it, demon." I said with more courage than I felt, brandishing the pruning pole at Sebastian whether I could truly wield it as a death scythe or not. Every fibre, of my body was screaming at me in terror, telling me not to.

"What the hell are you doing you idiot?!" William's yell bounced off the walls and rang in my ears.

"Saving your life!" I screamed back at him. The demon flew at me with inhuman speed, the bloody steak knife clutched in his hands. I bit my lip; at least it was going to be quick. I scrunched my eyes closed and blindly threw the death scythe in front of me as if it alone would save me from the wrath of a demon. I swore again quietly, not really caring if it was going to be my last words. My heart pounded in my chest. This was it.

There was a deafening bang, and a hissing sound like an electric shock. My eyes flew open in time to watch the knife wrenched from the demon's hand by an invisible force. There was a look of unmistakable shock on his pale face as he too was thrown to the ground.

I wasn't dead. How was that even possible? The question reeled over and over in my head. I was still standing with my back to the wall, the pruning pole still clutched in my trembling hands. Was it the reason I was still alive, the reason why I was still standing there with my face stupidly locked into an expression of shock? What happened was beyond me.

"Now, now," A sing song voice called from the roof. My eyes shot up at the disturbingly feminine silhouette of Grell Sutcliff, "no need to fight over me! There's enough of me to go around." He jumped from the building as if it were a three foot drop, the red chainsaw raised above his head, aiming a heavy blow at Sebastian. The demon was quick though, and dodged it quite easily. The chainsaw rammed into the ground, causing it to tremble under my feet.

"Need some help boss?" The sound of Ronald's voice along with the revving motor of his death scythe lifted a weight from my chest. It was three against one, odds not even Sebastian could ignore.

"Well, young master, it seems the odds have turned against us." He eyed the reapers who were now standing by our side, carefully. His eyes were ever so slightly narrowed at us. "Shall you have me retreat, or shall I continue the fight. The decision is yours to make young master."

"It would be unwise to have even you take on four reapers at once. We shall retreat for now Sebastian." Four reapers? William was right about disguising me after all.

"As you wish young master." The demon brushed off his tail coat and slipped it over his shoulders. He bowed low, and as if nothing happened at all, they walked away. I listened to the clicking of their shoes on stone until they mingled with the sounds of the crowd and faded away.


	3. Chapter 3: Trust as a Rare Commodity

I apologize for being so MIA recently. I've got a lot to deal with for school. This chapter is quite a lot shorter than the others, mostly because the last paragraph was just the perfect ending for the chapter. It was getting to the point where I felt there was no other way to end to chapter. Enjoy!**  
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* * *

**Chapter 3 **

_Trust as a Rare Commodity _

"So, no memories huh?" Ronald scratched his blond head. "There were a couple on our list too. Beats me what it could mean."

"This is strange indeed, Knox. We should inform the higher ups immediately." William seemed to be completely unconcerned by the fact we both almost died less than ten minutes ago.

"Something is stealing memories, and it's not demons or angels for that matter, which leads me to you Miss Bates." His pruning pole was pointed at my confused face, his hand on the trigger. Once again I found my life on the line, and such a thin line it was on. I could barely form sentences for fear that with a twitch of a finger my life would be over.

"So this is the thanks I get for saving your life?" My voice was quiet, but laced with fear and anger. After risking my own life in an attempt to save his sorry ass, I got this?

"A human should have died, Miss Bates."

"You're right, I should have died." I said, backing myself against the damp stone wall. "That's all you've got right though, and in case you haven't noticed I haven't attacked anyone, so you can put that down now." I had to bite back the anger rising in my chest, my fear as its fuel. I had no control over what happened. I couldn't understand what happened, so why did he have to stand there, with those accusing eyes fixed upon me, pretending he could? I had to try one more time to find a diplomatic solution. "I'm not an enemy William, please, don't make me one."

"Boss," Ronald apprehensively put a hand on his superior's shoulder, "we should see what the higher ups make of this before jumping to any conclusions." I felt my body un-stiffen as William lowered his weapon. I could have hugged Ronald right then and there, but after considering my current status, I decided it did not fall into the category of 'treading lightly'.

"You're right Knox." His glasses flashed in the faint golden glow of sunset. "There would be no telling how much paper work we'd have to file if she were wrongly killed." I snorted.

"Nice to know you value a small inbox more than my life." William ignored my sarcastic retort and continued speaking to Ronald.

"I need you to escort her back to your apartment for the night. I've got more business to attend to."

"Alright, sir."

"And you." William finally acknowledged my existence. "Don't think I have let my guard down. I have my eyes on you."

"Anything you say, sir" I whispered under my breath, as Ronald and I melted into the crowd once more.

* * *

The street lamps all around us glowed like many little moons against the darkened sky. A silence hung around us like a thick mist as we walked back to the housing block. Too much happened today, too much to even think about, so instead I counted the fireflies. However, it became difficult to keep track of them as the flicked their little lights on and off, so resigned to content silence.

I realized with a gut twisting feeling, that not once since I came here, had I thought of home. Home, with the familiar rush of traffic, and the voices of the few people close to me. Did anyone bother to look for me? Did anyone even care? I didn't need to answer those questions, for I knew there would always be at least one person to whom I was the whole world. That person would be sitting at home, by the phone, tears all dried up, waiting for the police to call and tell them I was gone for good, that they'd lost another one.

The night air was chilly, and I automatically shoved my hands into my coat pockets, where they bushed against the cold metal of the silver necklace.

"Ronald?" The air from my words blew a puff of mist into the crisp air.

"Hm." With a gloved hand I pulled the necklace out of my pocket. I watched his face drop into a deep frown. "Oh… That." His voice was quiet, but he couldn't hide the obvious pain in his voice. It was clear to me the necklace stirred up some less than pleasant memories, and it bothered me that this was so.

"I'm really sorry, I didn't mean to-"

"No it's alright." He gave me a weak smile. "You had no idea of course."

"Oh… alright then.

"What I'm about to tell you, I don't want you telling anyone else if you can help it. Most of the others know already though." I remained silent. "The story is of the life and death of Ronald Knox. He was seventeen, engaged to an absolutely lovely girl. Her name was Caroline Martin. She was very dear to him. It was a few days before the wedding, and he decided he would surprise her with a gift. He bought her the most finely made silver necklace he could afford. On his way there though, he was struck by a carriage and died instantly. I guess that's where the story ends." I stopped walking.

"No, Ronald you're wrong." I said softly.

"Sorry?"

"The story doesn't have to end there."

"I don't follow."

"The necklace, let's go give it to her, put things to rest."

"You have got to be joking. This was over a hundred years ago. She's been dead for a very long time now."

"I know."

When we arrived, the graveyard was empty. A fog swirled in the air, and a raven croaked somewhere in the distance. There was nobody there except us and tombstones of the long dead, covered in various mosses, almost unreadable. A vase of fresh red roses was carefully placed by a weathered tombstone, never forgotten. I felt oddly comfortable in the moonlit graveyard. There was always something about the peacefulness of such places that drew me to them. My behaviour had always been scrutinized for its differences, because of course, nobody wanted to hang out with the weird girl who hung out in the graveyards. Her notebook out writing words with such meaning they would never understand. No, nobody ever did.

"Here." Ronald's voice cut into the silence. The tombstone was the oldest one of the lot, cracked in places, lichen grew in patches on its surface. I stood behind him watching as he laid the necklace in a tiny dirt hole and smoothed it over with dirt. A cold night breeze wandered through my hair making it dance against the backdrop of a murky, tar black sky. I pulled my jacket tighter.

Out of nowhere, I was punched in the gut by an overwhelming sense of fear. A pair of monstrous blood red eyes pierced through me from the alleyway just beyond the fence. The outline of something terrible and spider-like moved towards me. The voice in my head was screaming, _run, run,_ but my body wouldn't move. Ronald yelled something, but his voice was nothing more than a drum pounding vaguely in my head. My face was gripped by a frozen hand.

"Hush." A voice said, and my world dissolved into nothing but fear and pain.


End file.
